


Pong

by double_negative



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Gaming, M/M, OOC, Tail Shenannigans, Teenage Boys Beeing Weirdos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 20:03:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7188125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/double_negative/pseuds/double_negative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter invites Kurt to play a game and proceeds to be a complete ass.<br/>Only it's not his intention at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pong

**Author's Note:**

> Blame my wife for this. This fic is for you, dear, because you keep ruining my life with new fandoms and I love you for it.
> 
> Also happy birthday to our blue cinnamon roll son, Nightcrawler (well, technically the actor who plays him, but why not)

"And why exactly we needed to come to your place?"

Kurt should've known better than to accept Peter's invitation, that's for sure, because when he lead Kurts into his room, from floor to the ceiling covered in band posters, colorful lights from various electronic devices flashing, Kurt immidiately feels like he doesnt belong, borderline nauseous and overwhelmed because he's not really sure where to look. Stacks of comic books are strewn across the floor and some stray pizza boxes, empty soda cans and candy wrappers complete the look of absolute mess and chaos.

"I wanted to play a game", the only explanation Peter offers, before he disappears from Kurt's sight, picking up trash and shoveling it all into a corner of the room.

It sure is nice to know that he would clean up when he invites a guest, but shouldn't he do this before the guest is there or at least use a trashcan? Kurt can't help but feel a little annoyed at Peter's lack of foresight.

"And what is that game that we can't play at the school?", Kurt asks, surveying the room. There's a ping-pong table and some boxes with tabletop games, Peter probably plays those with his sisters, but it's nothing they don't already have at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngers. Professor provides kids with a variety of ways to spend their free time, from sports to different hobbies and surely if they needed to travel that far away into the city, Peter must have something extraordinaire to show Kurt.

Well. It is extraordinaire. It's something that Kurt is not sure he's ever seen besides on the TV, an arcade cabinet. It's black and white and screen is lightly glowing, displaying the name of the game: Pong.

As Kurt approaches the machine, Peter is already started the game and the blurring silouette blinking in an out on the left and the right side of the cabinet and movement on the screen suggest he's playing... with himself?

"See, it's easy!", he pipes from the machine.

Kurt's bewilderment must be really obvious at this point as Peter stops dead when he notices how Kurt stares at him, eyebrows knit together and eyes squinting.

"If you want me to play with you, you should take it slower. It's my first time doing something like that."

Peter lets out a snort of laughter, reacting how inappropriate that sounded just now, but Kurt continues, oblivious to innuendos, "And besides why would you need me? You seem to do fine on your own."

Peter's face lights up as he beckons Kurt to come closer, "Well, Kurt, my friend, I believe you're the only one who has fast enough reflexes to challenge me, so I'm giving you an opportunity to do exactly that."

Kurt feels almost disappointed. All that for a game? Sure, it's interesting to try out something new, but Peter was so excited when he begged him to come to his place, it's quite underwhelming to learn that it was all to just relieve Peter's boredom.

"And you dragged me the whole way here to see if I can beat you?" Kurt shoots incredilous look towards Peter, who just smiles nonchallantly, like he always does.

"You got me. Now can we play?"

And who's Kurt to decline the offer? After all spending time with his friend doesn't seem bad at all, even if he expected something more.

As Peter explains the game, it all actually seems pretty easy. There's only one knob that moves your character - the white line on the screen as two lines paddle a square-shaped "ball" to one another. It gets Kurt a couple of minutes to adjust to following the movement of a several objects at the same time and he scores his first goal. Peter just smiles at that.

"You're a quick learner. Now I won't be so easy on you.", that praise sounds more like condescencion to Kurt. And Peter is not joking, he moves fast, increasing the pace of the ball movement with each pass, and in no time at all Kurt loses and Peter lets out a victorious laugh, "Come on, you can do better than this. One more?"

Kurt loses three more games before they become pretty evenly matched and he claims his first win. It's strangely engrossing, almost hypnotizing, the movement of figures on the screen, but after his first win he can't seem to get an upper hand anymore. With each loss Kurt becomes more annoyed. He was supposed to keep up and was that first win just a lucky break? Peter is strangely silent and Kurt realises, he can't really see the movement of Peter's hand on the joystick. He must've started using his powers to react more quickly and Kurt's annoyance turns into anger really fast.

"That's cheating, you know."

Peter's face is almost apologetic, as he realises Kurt is furious, but his gaze drifts somewhere lower until...

 

He disappears in a blink behind Kurt's back.

"Whoa. You knew your tails all coils up when you're angry?", Peter's voice sounds like a child's who has seen a new toy would.

What the hell is he doing? For sure, Kurt knows and he's not exactly proud of that. His tail sometimes has a mind of it's own when he's distracted, televising his emotions to the world around much like a cat's tail would. He fumbles for words, deciding if he even should explain something like this, and to Peter of all people. That's until Peter actually grabs his tail and all the jumbled words come out of Kurt's mouth as a surprised yelp.

"It's so cool. Your tail, I mean.", Peter's voice almost... awed. Kurt can feel blush creeping up his cheeks and for the first time he's thankfull it's not really noticeable because of his skin color. No one usually adresses his tail, maybe because they're afraid or slightly disgusted or maybe because they don't want to hurt his feelings, he's not sure. What he knows is that he rarely get praised for something like this, he mostly gets bewildered looks even from mutants. He figured having wings or extra eyes can look good, but a tail is just... strange.

Peter's touch suddenly is a rough grip and with a pained gasp, teleports away, eyes wide and stance defensive. Peter just shrugs.

"It's really sensitive, isn't it?"

All Kurt wants is to blink out of existence right now and appear somewhere far, far away, but to run away would be even more embarassing, so he just lets his breath become steady and heartbeat slow down after the scare Peter has given him.

"Did you have to do that to know? It's a part of my spinal column. That's where all the nerves are, so of course it is."

The smile Peter gives him is so smug, Kurt feels like falling through the floor, "So uh. If I stroke it softly, would it feel good?"

Kurt feels his cheeks heat up. That's... certainly not what he imagined their little game would turn into.

"S-Shut up. You're being immature."

Suddenly Peter is across the room, on his couch, examining his nails with a disinterested look.

"Well, sorry, it's not me who immidiately thought about weird stuff. And you're supposed to be religious. What a shame, you're just like all the others your age, with mind stuck on animalistic..."

He rambles about Kurt's supposedly perverted mind, but Kurt is not even listening anymore. If he wasn't embarassed before, he is now. Maybe he should say something, but all that comes out of his mouth is...

"Uh. I... guess it can feel nice if you're gentle."

Immidiately realising that he made the situation worse, he adds, almost bashfully, "But I will probably punch you. Repeatedly."

"Probably?", Peter is close, very close again, his face too close to Kurt's for comfort.

The way Peter waggles his eyebrows is obscene. He's really doing this to get on Kurt's nerves now, isn't he? This all must be some kind of a joke or a plot to get to him. If that's how it is, Kurt will give him exactly what he wants.

 

...and before his first punch even lands, he's on the floor, tripped by Peter's quick legs. That's it. You can only tolerate such behaviour for so long, and before Kurt can even register Peter with his eyes again, he blinks out, gluing himself to the ceiling. He can't possibly get him there and once he'll appear, Kurt will pounce and punch his smug face. Repeatedly. Or at least that's the plan.

And it works. At least, for a second, when Peter finally reappears Kurt thinks he managed to take him by surprise as he tackles him to the floor, but Peter is always quicker and suddenly he's on top of Kurt and his face has never looked so punchable, but he has Kurt's hands and legs pinned under his body and Kurt has no choice but to smack him with his tail. Not enough to lacerate with the sharp edge, but strong enough to sting, square across his face.

"You look like an angry cat."

And that's enough to make Kurt blink out again, this time landing right on Peter's back, actually surprising him, knocking his breath out as he coughs and sputters.

"C... cat's got claws."

Kurt can only groan, completely annoyed. His tail swivels around him, the sole reason this mess even started and he wishes it was never there, so maybe this mess could've been avoided.

"What should I do to make you shut up?"

For the first time since they knew each other Peter is slow to respond. His voice is raspy from coughing. "You can kiss me."

Every hair on Kurt's body stands up, his tail going completely stiff, as he almost shouts, "WHAT?"

Peter is not really struggling at that point. He could have Kurt off him in less than a second, but he just lies on the floor, legs and arms splayed out exactly as they were when he fell. His voice is a little muffled by the carpet when he repeats, completely defeated for no apparent reason.

"Just kiss me."

It's some kind of a prank, it must be. Peter is just being an obnoxious idiot, like he always is when he's compromised in any way, but Kurt's perplexed enough about that sudden turn, he decides to play along.

"And why would I?"

Peter just pushes his face deeper in the carpet and he's silent, so silent it feels uneasy. When he turns his head to speak again, his expression is muddled with unease.

"I've been flirting with you since we came back to school from Cairo." As if explains anything. From Kurt's point of view Peter has been nothing more than annoyance. Always appearing so suddenly and playing pranks and being as loud and obnoxious as he possibly can. If that is how people flirt, Kurt is not even sure. Well, there's also constant stealed touches, Peter's obsession with messing up Kurt's hair and now that weird tail... thing. Maybe, just maybe... No, this can't be and that's exactly why Kurt says what he says.

"You're in love with me, aren't you?"

Even mentioning love is so strange to Kurt. It's not like he really, really dislikes Peter, he knows he can be nice when he drops his cool guy act. And well, even without it he's still impressive, maybe even moreso. It's just that Kurt never even considered Peter can feel something for him other than this weird vitriolic friendliness.

"I guess I am."

And here Kurt thought he would surely laugh at him and say it was all a joke. Peter sounds so dejected for someone confessing his feelings.

"You do realise I actually like you as a friend, Peter?", Kurt cannot believe he's continuing to play into this.

"I guess", he's talking into the carpet again, his voice muted by it so his words are barely understandable.

"And you do know what church thinks about such... behavior."

This is all wrong. He wasn't supposed to be here and now they both having this ridiculous talk, both surely wishing to be anywhere else.

"I do", Peter sounds almost pathetic now, completely deflated.

"So why?"

Kurt shouldn't be asking that question, he should've been playing that Pong game like they were supposed to and he should've won when Peter would stop cheating and they would've had fun and returned to the school and continued with their lives and their weird half-rivalry half-friendship. He shouldn't be listening to Peter's answer right now, feeling that treacherous blush creep up on his face again.

"Have you looked into a mirror recently, Kurt? You're like... a nine. You're just too much. With your stupid face and your stupid hair and that goddamned tail—". Kurt can only wince at the blasphemous word, "...And when I saw you in that suit I thought that I don't really care if I'm damning you to hell, I just had to try."

He can't help but smile. If Peter was ever good for anything, it was making Kurt smile. Sure, he was annoying and sometimes downright infuriating, but his jokes were harmless, never on anyone's expence and he was the only one to treat Kurt as equal, not some kind of unknowing country boy. Sure, Kurt doesn't know a lot of things, but Peter always takes time with him, he's so adamant on teaching Kurt about all the exciting new things and is actually quite patient with him, which is unexpected from someone who always chooses the fastest way possible.

"That's not really how it works, Peter", Kurt says. Maybe that's one of the things Peter can show him. Proper human interaction, that is, Kurt mentally corrects himself. It's not like there's anything more behind that.

"Ugh. I don't care. Just get off. Leave and we'll never speak about this ever again and you can pretend that never happened or something, because I sure want to", Peter voice is small and his cheeks are a shade of red Kurt has never seen on another human being. 

"Why would you want that?", there's genuine curiousity in Kurt's voice now that he actually started to understand what is happening.

"Because you're going to reject me, duh."

So that's how it is. Peter is actually afraid. That's new. That's... exciting, actually, to see Peter so distraught, fumbling for words and all because of him, of Kurt, who had never thought of himself being even remotely attractive or deserving of such feelings. So the next words come almost naturally.

"Who said anything about rejection?"

Peter's face can be in a dictionary as the definitinon of "puzzled".

"You... aren't rejecting me?"

Kurt can't help but laugh at Peter's confusion, as he finally raises up to his feet and offers Peter his hand to help him stand up.

"I'm not. At least not on that kissing thing. People are allowed to make mistakes, you know. Live and learn, all that."

Well, this is awkward, but Kurt could care less. The whole issue is so intriguing and unfamiliar, and after all nothing really bad will happen, because it's Peter, someone he can trust.

"So you're..."

"I'm willing to give it a try and if I don't like it, well. We can go with your plan."

Peter face lights up and it's brighter than all the flashing screens in the room. he gestures Kurt to a couch and they sit down beside each other, unease in the air between them almost palpable. It is uncomfortable for both of them, Kurt knows, so he decides to break the silence first.

"So... can you show me how it's done?", he tries to sound as innocent as he can, and that catches Peter off-guard.

"What?"

Or maybe he's trying to turn it into a joke again or force Kurt to say all those embarassing things that run through his mind out loud.

"You know what."

He attempts to replicate Peter's brow wiggle, which earns him a surprised laugh from Peter, who gives up and starts his explanation.

"Well. it's a little bit like Pong. I mean. You should already have the idea from the movies... And it goes back and forth like the ball—"

Now that Kurt knows how to make Peter shut up, he springs forward and connects their lips, silencing Peter's inane ramble. It's the second time he manages to surprise the boy, as Peter immidiately goes completely still. It's a nice feeling to have an advantage for once, Kurt finds out. And it certainly feels nice, Peter's lips soft and warm with a vague hint of something sweet.

"You're the worst teacher, you know?", he says as he breaks away from the stunned boy.

"I'm still the only one you have."

Peter looks so smug, Kurt is not sure if he wants to punch him again or kiss him, completely flustered and out his element and kind of ashamed he was the first to give in in their game.

"And what do you think?"

"I think I really am going to hell. Can we do this again?"

As his tail coils around Peter's leg, Kurt is not sure anymore what's right or wrong as he reaches for another kiss. They can figure the whole thing later, after they're done with that lesson. After all, Kurt is dead set on learning everything he can from Peter. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but the satisfaction brought it back and Kurt is nothing but satisfied.


End file.
